The weather in La Jolla, Calif., made a mess of things over the weekend for the PGA. It turned what should have been a Tiger Woods Sunday into a Monday coronation.

Things should go back to normal the rest of the year—weather permitting, of course. His coronations will proceed on their regularly-scheduled dates.

No, not so much because we now have a definitive answer to the ubiquitous “Is Tiger Back?” question. (It’s just getting fun to type that five or six times a year now, although not as much fun lately as typing “Are the Lakers Back?”) We don’t have an answer to that, not in January.

We only have history to guide us. History is on Woods’ side.

Monday’s virtual walkover—a 4-stroke victory at 14-under—finished off Tiger’s seventh victory (eight overall, counting the 2008 U.S. Open) in the annual Tour stop at Torrey Pines (formerly the Buick Invitational, now the Farmers Insurance Open). A win there, early in the year, has been an omen for success for him every time, going back nearly to the beginning of his run.

In each of the previous six years he’s won this tournament (1999, 2003 and 2005-08), he has finished the year with at least five victories. In five of those seasons, the win total has included at least one major. The exception was ’03, during what was then considered a catastrophic, career-altering “slump”—10 straight majors without a win, with the ’03 shutout aided by late ’02 knee surgery.

The then-Buick win was his comeback tourney. Even without a major, he won Player of the Year that season, as he did five other times in seasons in which he won at Torrey Pines.

In ’08, of course, he won there twice. Not that anyone needs to be reminded of that, or of his new definition of “slump.’’ His drought now stands at 0-for-his-last-18.

For what it’s worth, and in case another parallel to the good ol’ days is needed, part of his renaissance during the post-surgical 2003-04 speed bump involved a re-tooling of his swing. He’s been re-tooling it again over the past two-plus years, with a different coach, the often-scorned Sean Foley.

There hasn’t been a lot of scorning of Foley lately, or of Woods’ swing, or of anything else about his game. There certainly was none of that going on over the weekend at Torrey Pines. Day by day (except Saturday, naturally), Woods rolled on, padding his lead with a combination of his spectacular play and his competition’s inability to rise to the challenge.

He weaved in his usual supply of “wow” moments—a great, fist pump-inspiring chip on No. 4 on Sunday, and on Monday a sensational save from behind a tree, off a driveway out of bounds on No. 9, and later a bunker shot onto the green from another cartoonishly contorted stance on No. 11.

The most cartoonish part of the day, and of the entire tournament, was the fact that down the stretch, Woods had an 8-shot lead, actually padding his own score and the distance between himself and his hapless competitors. He didn’t hold onto all of it, but, of course, it didn’t matter.

So, it’s worth repeating … winning this tournament is a great sign for Tiger Woods.

It’s also worth pointing out that Rory McIlroy did not play this tournament. Graeme McDowell didn’t either—yet he still got off the line of the week from the other side of the Atlantic, on Twitter: “Was thinking of adding Farmers Open to my schedule next year. Maybe need to reconsider. Tiger owns the place.”

They’ll all meet soon enough—McIlroy and McDowell and Adam Scott and the other contenders. Brandt Snedeker will be around, and the solid tourney he had at the Farmers likely will mean more than it did this time, when he disappeared from sight behind Tiger.

Phil Mickelson will be there, too, although, on the course that he, like Woods, calls his home turf, it was as if he was never there this weekend. His 2-under total never came close to getting it done.